The typical tennis season at Bainbridge High School the past few seasons has included what Spartans coach Mary McCombs calls one or two “for sure win” players.

She may not have that surefire victor from her boys squad this season, but it’s her deeper depth of aspiring tennis players and a continued focus on match management that she believes can take her team to a new level of competitiveness against the likes of their scrappy Olympic League opponents, particularly Port Angeles and defending 2A champion North Kitsap.

“These players aren’t just hitting the ball and serving, you know what I mean,” she said. “They’re working and know how to use strategy. We’re excited because we have our future.”

That future could include a larger pool of state tournament candidates come postseason in May as Bainbridge began this year in 2A rather than 3A classification, just like the others in the league. So McCombs will no longer have to handpick qualifiers for the 3A state bracket out of a pool of players she believed deserved much more.

That was especially true of her girls teams, the latest of which won its final 3A district tournament last spring. “It’s hard to even push them during the season, the girls especially, when they’re beating the competition, and they don’t get to do anything with it,” said McCombs, an outspoken critic of the previous system.

Bainbridge’s top singles slot belongs to Garner Hall. The junior has the characteristics of a top singles player in the eyes of McCombs, who said, “He’s right up there, and he’s a good singles player in that he uses the whole court. I think he has the ability to control a match.”

Meanwhile, her doubles teams layout is a toss-up. Seniors Reed Grandt and Sam King took the court together as No. 1’s in a Sept. 23 match vs. Kingston, but coach McCombs believes she can mix and match to find the necessary combinations.